Twenty-One
by Canon Archives
Summary: George's twenty-first birthday one-shot. Needless to say it's super angsty. Please read.


**Oof. This is a rough one, guys. Please read it though— the more stabs of pain you feel the better. Good luck!**

 **Disclaimer: All belongs to JKR.  
**  
It was April 1st, 1999. George Weasley was twenty-one years old.

It could not have been characterized as a happy day; George spent the first half of it alone in his apartment above the shop, and the second half moping around the house after Molly convinced him to come home. It could have been worse though. Molly turned it into a work day, giving George lots of jobs to keep him busy. By the time dinner rolled around, he was at least smiling some, and the family gathering could almost pass for normal.

"Alright!" Molly exclaimed cheerfully. "I think it's time for cake!" She got up and went into the kitchen to prepare it. "Arthur, dear, come help me with the candles."

Molly's husband came into the kitchen, and Molly pulled out her homemade cake from the refrigerator. She'd made it as she always had: chocolate with vanilla frosting, and on the top she had written in red and yellow, "Happy Birthday Fred and George." She'd written out a blue 21 on the bottom below their names.

"Molly," Arthur whispered as he helped place the twenty-one candles. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"He won't want it any other way, Arthur," she answered sadly.

Once all of the candles were in, she used her wand to light them. "Okay Georgie!" She quickly turned off the lights. "Do you want us to sing to you?"

"No," he answered. Molly, feeling hurt, peeked her head into the dining room worriedly from the kitchen. He was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. "I want you to sing to both of us, Mum."

Molly sighed and nodded, grabbing the cake from the kitchen counter. "Okay, ready?" She called in a falsely cheery tone. "One, two, three—" and they all sang happy birthday to both Fred and George, just like always, as Molly carried the cake slowly to where George sat at the table. When they finished, they clapped and cheered, doing their best to keep the mood happy. George gave a small smile to his mum and thanked her.

"Make a wish, George!" Arthur exclaimed smiling, and the family leaned towards him in anticipation. But George's smile suddenly faded slightly.

He laughed shortly. "You want me to make a wish?"

"Yes!" The whole family exclaimed animatedly.

He laughed quietly again, with a hint of bitterness. He silently took his pointer and his thumb and pinch the two fingers over one of the candles.

"George, what are you doing?" Ginny complained.

"Sorry, Gin," he told her casually. "No wishes this year."

"But why not?" She frowned unhappily. It clearly was very important to her to have birthday wishes.

George pinched out another candle, a serious expression now on his face. "Because," he stated evenly, "the only thing that I wish," he pinched out another candle, "is something that can never come true."

The family became silent at that, and no one seemed to know what to say as George finished pinching out the twenty-one candles. He then picked up one of the candles, broke it in half as he always did on odd number birthdays, and licked the icing off the end. Then he dipped the other half into the cake.

"Does someone want to help me lick these candles?" He finally broke the ice, holding out the half-a-candle. "I'm only allowed to have ten-and-a-half this year."

There was some uncomfortable shifting in chairs, but George acted oblivious to it as he continued to pull out and suck on the ends of each candle. He paused and held a candle out to Ginny expectantly. Reluctantly, she took it and licked it.

In silence, almost as if it were a religious ceremony, the Weasleys passed each candle around to the members at the table and licked the icing off of them. Eventually, quiet murmuring started up again.

Molly clapped her hands together, doing her best not to cry herself. "Here!" She brought a cake knife out from the kitchen. "Cut the cake now, George."

Everyone began passing plates around the table in preparation to be served, and the noise level lifted another notch. George carefully picked up the knife and held it above the cake to cut. But just as the knife was about to slice through, his eyes widened and he gasped. He froze, and everyone went silent again. For a moment nothing moved.

The carefully guarded and pleasantly cheerful expression that George had been working very hard to put on was suddenly gone, replaced by a pained and frightened one. His breathing became uneven. Very slowly, he lowered the cake knife back down onto the counter with his shaking hand.

"I'm sorry, Mum," he whispered, not moving his eyes away from the cake. "I can't do this anymore."

And with that he got up abruptly, walking out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room.

The Weasleys sat in silence once again, staring at one another in shock. None of them knew what to do. Molly quickly ran over to where George had been sitting and stared down at the cake. She didn't know what she could possibly have done wrong. Charlie stood up and looked at the cake as well, and suddenly he gasped too.

"Oh, Mum," he sighed knowingly.

Molly now had tears in her eyes and looked at Charlie desperately. "What?" She cried. "What did I do, Charlie?"

He picked up the knife and held it over the cake as George had done. It was placed right over the 'and' in between their names, cutting right through the '2' and the '1.'

"You had to write their names like that?" Charlie asked as his voice cracked.

Molly caught her breath and let out a sob in comprehension. She shook her head. "It's how I've always done it..." She tried to explain.

"Yeah," Charlie said, tears in his eyes as well. "So that they could each have a half."

Molly sobbed harder now, letting her tears fall down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she cried, leaning her head on Charlie's shoulder. "I didn't mean to..."  
"I know, Mum," Charlie tried to soothe her, rubbing her back. "It's not your fault."

The family stayed like that for a long moment, as everyone cried silently. There was nothing any of them could do to make things better.

"It's going to take some time, Mum," Bill finally broke the silence. She nodded and wiped her eyes.

"I—" she hiccuped. " I tried so hard," she choked out through her tears. "I didn't want his day to end like this. Everyone— everyone is supposed to be _happy_ on their birthday," she sobbed again, fresh tears falling.

"He knows you're trying, Molly, dear," Arthur tried to comfort her as he walked around the table to hug her. "It's just not enough time yet."

Molly closed her eyes and nodded again, and after a few minutes her breathing became more normal. "Okay," she said when she was calm enough. "Why don't all of you go get ready for bed. We'll... We'll figure out what to do with the cake in the morning."

The family listened without argument. Bill and Fleur said their goodbyes and apparated back to Shell Cottage, and everyone else filed up the stairs to their rooms.

It wasn't until late that night that a small light appeared in the kitchen. Making hardly any noise, George opened the refrigerator and pulled out the cake his mum had made for both of them. Sitting down at the table, he leaned back in his chair with two forks and two bottles of firewhiskey. He took a nice long sip of the whiskey, before holding the bottle out to the empty chair next to him.

"Happy Birthday Freddie," he said, and clinked his bottle with the one in the empty place. He took one more sip, and then held up one of the forks. "Cheers." And with that, he dug his fork into the cake.

The next morning, when Molly opened the refrigerator, she found a half a cake with Fred's name and a number '2' leftover. Along with the cake, there was a note:

 _Thanks Mum. You can split the rest. We love you!  
\- F & G_

Despite the sad tears in her eyes, at that moment Molly felt more at peace and more content than she had in a very long time.

 **If your jaw dropped, you swore to yourself (or at me), or you cried/almost cried at least once, I succeeded. Thanks for reading! And don't forget to review!**


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